During the Google Buzz launch event, Brin spoke of being a big fan, even using it to gather opinions internally at Google about a New York Times opinion piece he was writing about Google Books.

Now that Buzz is available to the public, will Brin be participating? At the TED Conference in Long Beach, he told me that he might. The key issue for him and a number of Googlers is that the Buzz accounts they’ve used so far have only been for discussions within Google. Those account either need to be enabled to tap into the public version of Google Buzz or Googlers will have to open new accounts. That’s something Google’s looking at.

So you want to develop a Web video campaign to put on your website and add to YouTube and all the other Web video directories. Maybe you even want to create a new video micro site to promote that hot new product or service you’re about to launch. You want it done right, professional, slick, and you want it to be effective. Well of course you do.

You know you need to hire a firm that has the creative staff capable of not just shooting video but professionals who can write, direct, edit, and add all the post production elements you need, including signature music, sound design and on screen text. But are there other things you need to be aware of in order to maximize the return on your investment? You bet there are.

Pull marketing tactics such as search, blog and social media generate cheaper leads than more traditional outbound efforts, according to data from inbound online marketing platform HubSpot.

The “2010 State of Inbound Marketing” report indicates that spending on lead generation is 60% less among companies that devote at least one-half of their budget to inbound marketing, compared with companies spending at least one-half of lead generation dollars on outbound tactics.

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Websites with more content rank better with the search engines. Any online marketing consultant will emphasize, however, that “more” isn’t enough. For successful SEO, your site needs a steady stream of fresh, relevant content.

Like Google and Bing, Yahoo! has integrated Twitter into their search results. But that wasn't good enough for Bartz and the gang. No, they wouldn't be satisfied until people could conduct some serious Tweeting from Yahoo! itself. And so a deal has been struck.

If you so choose, you will be able to access your Twitter feed from Yahoo! including Mail and the Sports portal. You'll also be able to Tweet to your heart's content, directly from Yahoo!

LinkedIn is getting rather large. Yesterday evening, the network's vice president of marketing announced on Twitter that it had hit a milestone in terms of users, attracting its 60 millionth member.

LinkedIn had just 55 million members as of December 17th, so this new declaration means it's grown by a little more than nine percent in less than two months (which translates to a rate of at least 109 percent per year). That increase in size is, it should be needless to say, impressive.

Patrick Crane's announcement had some positive implications regarding LinkedIn's reach, too. Consider that the 60 millionth member doesn't live in Silicon Valley or some other part of California. Instead, he (or she) is located several thousand miles away in the Netherlands.

In recent years, multichannel retailers like Walmart, Best Buy and many others have embraced user-generated product reviews as an effective social media tool to increase conversion rates. The benefit is that in exchange for giving customers a forum to share their product experience (positive or negative), the merchant receives unbiased “voice of the customer” content that helps sell prospective customers. (And be honest, you have to respect a brand like Cabela’s willing to allow comments like “this thing sucks” live on the website.) All kidding aside, brands need to consider the risks with these systems and have a strategy to achieve high customer adoption. But in nearly every case we’ve encountered, the process works very well.

Local business search is becoming more of an area of great focus by search providers as time goes on. Google, especially, has been working overtime on providing new features that can help users find local businesses of interest. AOL's MapQuest has been working on improving its own business search functionality, which we talked to the company a little about.

New data released earlier today by web analytics firm Compete.com reveals that there has been a major shift at the top of the web charts: Facebook is now larger than Yahoo in the U.S.

Yahoo for years was the world’s most popular website — its ubiquitous portal has dominated the web since the 90s. Two years ago however, Google vaulted past Yahoo and became the Internet’s most popular destination. Last month, it became Facebook’s turn to knock Yahoo down another peg.

In December 2009, Yahoo garnered 133.45 million visitors in the U.S. Facebook wasn’t far behind with 132.13 million uniques. In the first month of 2010 though, there was a role reversal: Facebook’s traffic rose to 133.62 million visitors, while Yahoo shrunk down to 132.00 million.

Facebook’s shown no signs of stopping its meteoric rise, either. It recently celebrated its 400 millionth user and that number continues to rise in rapid fashion. Now the only website standing between it and web domination is Google.com.

If Google Buzz is any indication though, the search giant isn’t going to give up its throne without a fight.

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